Rune Factory
| Rune Factory | |
|---|---|
| Rune Factory logo | |
| Original title | ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー |
| transcription | Rūn Fakutorī |
| developer | Neverland Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher | Marvelous Entertainment , Natsume , Rising Star Games , Xseed Games |
| First title | Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon (2006) |
| Last title | Rune Factory 4 (2012) |
| Platform (s) | Nintendo DS , Nintendo 3DS , Wii , PlayStation 3 |
| Genre (s) | Computer role playing game |
Rune Factory ( Japanese ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー , Rūn Fakutorī ) is an RPG series by Neverland Co., Ltd. for the Nintendo DS , Nintendo 3DS , Wii and the PlayStation 3 . It is a spin-off from the Harvest Moon video game series . The producer of the Harvest Moon games, Yoshifumi Hashimoto, describes Rune Factory as "Harvest moon in which one wields a sword". In Germany, the Rune Factory series is distributed by Koch Media GmbH .
Gameplay
The gameplay of the Rune Factory series is similar to that of the Harvest Moon series. Ten seconds in real time are ten minutes in playing time. The player can grow vegetables with the help of upgradeable farm equipment. In contrast to the Harvest Moon playing technique, however, buying and rearing farm animals has been replaced by defeating and making friends with monsters in caves. When a monster is tamed, it helps the player in battle or produces salable goods. The game's combat system is action-role-playing style.
Like most Harvest Moon games, the player has a limited stamina, which is shown in the form of "rune points". Since it is also possible to fight in Rune Factory , the player also receives so-called hit points . Rune points are required to work magic, and the player can also use weapons without RP by sacrificing HP (hit points). The player can refresh RP by using runes that can be created by grown vegetables or potions. The HP can be refilled with the help of medicine or healing spells. The town's bathhouse heals both HP and RP. If the player has lost all HP while on the farm, he will collapse and be rescued. However, if he is outside the city, the game is over and he loses. However, this only happens in Rune Factory and Rune Factory 2 , in Rune Factory 3 and Rune Factory Frontier it does not cause "Game Over".
Vegetables can be grown in different areas and sold for gold. Other activities include mining for metals and minerals, fishing, or collecting food such as milk and eggs from friendly monsters. The player can then spend the money to make various upgrades to his house, weapons and tools.
In addition to the free gameplay, which never ends, the game follows a linear storyline that can be expanded as you explore caves and defeat certain monsters.
chronology
| title | platform | Release date Japan | Release date North America | Release date Europe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon | Nintendo DS | August 24, 2006 | August 14, 2007 | February 13, 2009 |
| Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon | Nintendo DS | January 3, 2008 | November 18, 2008 | October 8, 2010 |
| Rune Factory Frontier | Wii | November 27, 2008 | March 17, 2009 | April 1, 2010 |
| Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon | Nintendo DS | October 22, 2009 | November 9, 2010 | September 30, 2011 ( UK only ) |
| Rune Factory Oceans | Wii, PlayStation 3 | February 24, 2011 | October 7, 2011 | May 25, 2012 |
| Rune Factory 4 | Nintendo 3DS | 19th July 2012 | October 1, 2013 | December 11, 2014 |
action
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon ( ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー - 新 牧場 物語 - , Rūn Fakutorī - Shin Bokujō Monogatari ) is set in Kardia, a small town on the east coast of the Kingdom of Norad. The game begins when the protagonist, Raguna (name can be changed in game), enters the city. Starved and dehydrated, he collapses in front of the house of a young lady named Mist. Raguna has amnesia and has no idea where he is or where he comes from. Manure brings him water and bread and afterwards she offers him a house on her property if he promises to work on the farm.
The player can now work on the farm and explore the various caves around Kardia. He can marry a girl, catch monsters, and expand his house. After the player fights his way through the caves, the mystery of the monsters that attack the village is revealed more and more.
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon ( ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー 2 , Rūn Fakutorī 2 ) begins when a man with memory loss arrives in a town called Alvarna. There he meets a girl named Mana, who gives him a farm and tools. He is given the name Kyle (name can be changed in-game). He can get married in the game and have a child with his wife. He later helps build a school for the city. One day his memory comes back and he remembers why he came to Alvarna and why he really wanted to build the school. He leaves his family in the middle of the night. A few years later, his child follows the clues his father left him and learns of the existence of Fiersome, a dragon that was locked away a thousand years ago. His child also finds out that his father left to reunite with Fiersome so that he could control the dragon's power. The dragon is defeated and locked away again by his child. With that the spirit of his father was locked away with the dragon. As a result, his child seeks a way to separate his father's spirit and ultimately manages to bring him back home to reunite him with his family and friends.
Rune Factory Frontier
Rune Factory Frontier (Japanese ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー フ ロ ン テ ィ ア , Rūn Fakutorī Furontia ) is a direct successor to Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon . Raguna is looking for the missing crap that moved to a new town because someone called her in her dreams. Raguna also moves to the new town called Trampoli, where he lives in the house next to her. But then Raguna finds out that the flying whale island in the sky threatens to fall on the city.
Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon ( ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー 3 , Rūn Fakutorī 3 ) begins when a girl named Shara takes a monster into her home that has fallen from the sky. Overnight it turns back into a human and he runs to the big Sharance tree, where he meets Shara again. Since he has memory loss, they decide to call him Micah (name can be changed in-game). He is commissioned to cultivate the land around the tree. Micah discovers that the tree has not flowered in fifty years and the land has been in decline ever since. When he learns that he is a half-monster, he keeps it to himself. Later he meets the Univir, with whom he only interacts in monster form. The villagers and the Univir used to live in peace, but for a few decades the two peoples have become estranged. Micah wins the trust of both factions and manages to resolve their differences and live in peace again.
When Micah tries to marry one of the girls in the game, his bride mysteriously disappears on their wedding day. In search of her, Micah is confronted with Aquaticus, a large water dragon that holds his lover captive. He thinks that humans and Univir should not live together and that he, as a half-monster, should not marry either of the two races. When he sees Micah's determination to fight back his lover, Aquaticus solves the mystery. It was all part of his plan so that humans and Univir could finally reconcile properly, because only then could the Sharance tree be completely healed in order to avert the destruction of the world. In the end, Micah and his wife get married.
Rune Factory Oceans
Rune Factory Oceans ( ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー オ ー シ ャ ン ズ , Rūn Fakutorī Ōshanzu ), also known as Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny , is about the two friends Aden / Azel and Sonja / Sonia, whose souls are mysteriously sealed in a body. In the role of Aden, it is important to find out where Sonja's / Sonia's body is and how it can get back into it. With the help of the golem Ymir, the player travels across the sea, can salvage a lot of interesting sunken islands and even fight battles with the giant. The player can take care of the farm, fight monsters and build relationships. There are a total of nine girls, ten if you choose Aden after the story has ended, for the male protagonist and three boys, four if you choose Sonja / Sonia after the story has ended, for the female side for a relationship .
Rune Factory 4
Rune Factory 4 ( ル ー ン フ ァ ク ト リ ー 4 , Rūn Fakutorī 4 ) is set in the Kingdom of Selphia. The protagonist (Lest or Frey) (gender and name can be selected in the game) falls from an airship and has memory loss. The player lands on the royal dragon, Ventuswill, who allows him to stay in his castle with his butler, Volkanon. The protagonist must behave as if he were the prince / princess of the village and must use so-called "prince points" to build the city and hold festivals.
It was sold more than 135,000 times in Japan within a week of its release.
development
According to Marvelous' director and Harvest Moon inventor, Yasuhiro Wada, Rune Factory 2 does not borrow the Japanese subtitle Harvest Moon . This was so decided to highlight Rune Factory as an independent and stand-alone series. Marvelous will do this in the following titles in the series, including Rune Factory Frontier . In contrast, Natsume used the subtitle A Fantasy Harvest Moon for Rune Factory 2 and Rune Factory 3 . The subtitles were also adopted in German.
In Rune Factory 3 , the player can transform himself into a monster, a so-called "Wooly", for the first time. Rune Factory Oceans is the first game in the series that was not released exclusively for a Nintendo console. Although it is possible to play a girl in Rune Factory Oceans , Rune Factory 4 is the first rune factory game in which you can determine the gender of the protagonist right from the start. For the first time you don't play a farmer, but a prince.
criticism
The Rune Factory series was rated very well; no game in the series has yet been criticized.
Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon received an 8.4 out of 10 rating from Mark Bozon, a game reviewer at IGN . Bozon said the creative style was "incredible" and that it was "the Harvest Moon you've been waiting for". 91/100 from Gamebrink, 7.0 / 10 from Nintendo Power and 4/5 from X-Play .
IGN also rated Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon with 8.4 out of 10 points and noted the similarity to its predecessor. The average of the collected rating on GameRankings is 9.0 out of 10 points and also indicates that it is very similar to the original.
Literature on the game
Of Rune Factory 2 a variety of manga series was published, including in the magazines Dengeki Nintendo DS , Monthly Wings, Dragon Age and Dengeki Maoh . Players who pre-ordered the game in Japan received a free CD with three short stories and an 18-page art book. Shortly after the game was released in Japan, a CD containing all of the background music, three short stories and two theme songs was released, followed by a novel based on the game. The American pre-order bonus was a plush "Chipp — a Monster" from the series, which looked like a squirrel in appearance. It was received in a box from the participating websites.
Web links
- Official Website (Japanese)
- Rune Factory series at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon . In: IGN . 2007 = 08-14. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
- ↑ Rune Factory 4 Is Best-Selling Game in Series. In: Anime News Network. August 25, 2012, accessed on August 26, 2012 .
- ↑ C3 Interview with Yasuhiro Wada . Cubed 3 . June. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
- ↑ a b Natsume's Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon for DS Goes Gold . In: News . IGN. October 21, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2009.
- ↑ Bozon: Rune Factory Review . In: IGN . August 17, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
- ↑ Amazon offers Rune Factory 2 squirrel preorder . In: News . Gamertell. October 6, 2008. Retrieved November 6, 2010.